Hitting Books A Challenge At Tourney Time

At the Pyramid, bands were playing, fans were cheering and teams were thinking about the NCAA Tournament. Back at Kentucky, Ole Miss, Georgia and South Carolina, classes were being held, tests taken and grades given.

What’s a player to do?

Once the Southeastern Conference tournament is settled, the four teams in the semifinals all expect to be in the NCAA Tournament. So does Vanderbilt, and even Arkansas doesn’t count the season over with Friday’s 65-63 loss to Georgia. The Razorbacks are looking for more games in the NIT.

Add it up, and it can mean a lot of time away from school and a lot of time away from class even when the teams are home.

“When LSU made it to the Final Four, it was very challenging to keep up with academics,” said Bo Bahnsen, the associate athletic director, who oversees academics for the team. “It starts in conference tournaments and keeps going if a team is doing well. Get on a run, and your players will probably miss classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for three or four weeks.”

Add to that travel time, practice sessions, film review and team meetings, and hitting the books is a challenge.

“I think just about everyone travels with academic counselors these days,” said Auburn athletic director David Housel. “You just about have to schedule study halls on the road. We’re on a quarter system, which means we’re closing in on finals, and if the team were also going on in the tournament, it would take some very careful planning.”

Academic counselors are as important as equipment managers, Bahnsen said.

“The further you go, the harder it becomes to get the kids to focus on anything except basketball,” he said. “If they’re not practicing or playing, they want to be watching the other teams to see how they’re doing. The counselors help keep them on track through all that.”

Kentucky coach Rick Pitino, who has plenty of tournament experience, handles it by cutting back on everything, including the time he spends at the tournament site.

“Kentucky has the opposite philosophy of most schools,” Pitino said. “Some schools go into a tournament maybe a week ahead of time. We go in the day before our first game, and if it wasn’t for the press, we wouldn’t go in early at all. By doing that, and having spring break when we do, we keep the amount of school the guys miss to a minimum.”